Oldfield Mouse 



Range. Central and Western Florida, represented in Georgia and 

 elsewhere in Florida by related species and varieties and on 

 the prairies of the upper Mississippi by the closely allied prairie 

 mouse. (See below.) 



These are the smallest and shortest-tailed of our white-footed 

 mice and with the exception of the prairie mouse of the upper 

 Mississippi Valley they are residents of our South Atlantic States. 

 They appear to be more animals of the open ground, as con- 

 trasted with the last group, which are essentially inhabitants of 

 woodland. 



The Florida oldfield mouse is said by Mr. Bangs to "live 

 in fields and open places and probably before so much of its 

 range was under cultivation was restricted to sandhills and open 

 drier prairies of interior Florida." The allied beach mouse, one 

 of our most beautiful animals, "is confined entirely to the sandy 

 beaches and adjacent sandhills of the east coast of Florida. Its 

 life depends on the sea oats (Uniola) and it is never found where 

 that plant does not grow. It is very abundant in favourable 

 places and its presence can always be detected by the little foot- 

 prints which show distinctly in the white sand around the tufts 

 of sea oats." (Bangs.) 



The dark-coloured Northern representative of this group, the 

 prairie mouse, is quite as much an inhabitant of the open, and 

 bears the same relationship to the common white-footed mouse 

 of this region as does the prairie field mouse to the common 

 field mouse. 



Mr. Kennicott states that the prairie mouse in the open prairie 

 makes burrows in the ground at the extremities of which the nest 

 is situated; but in cultivated districts often frequents corn shocks 

 and nests therein. 



Related Species and Varieties of the Oldfield 



Mouse 



1. Oldfield Mouse. Peromyscus subgriseus (Chapman). Descrip- 



tion and range as above. 



2. Rhoads' Oldfield Mouse. P. subgriseus rhoadsi Bangs. 



Yellower than the above. 

 Range. Western Florida (Tampa Bay). 



3. Georgia Oldfield Mouse. P. subgriseus baliolus Bangs. Much 



darker, with a decided dark dorsal stripe, tail nearly black. 

 Range. Sand hills of northern Georgia. 



